Amnesty Reaffirms its Position on the Draft Amendment to the Computer Act to Ensure Human Rights Standards

Amnesty reaffirms its position and expresses concern about “the draft amendment to the Computer Act” hoping that it is in accordance with the human rights standards and international law, as well as watching the commission amend Section 14(1).

Mrs. Piyanuch Kotsan, Director of Amnesty International Thailand, was invited to join the seminar stage in order to listen to opinions about the draft amendment to the Computer Act on Computer-Related Offenses (No. ……) B.E. ……. held by the Draft Consideration Commission, National Legislative Assembly, along with many speakers from relevant agencies.

Mrs. Piyanuch expressed Amnesty Thailand’s concern about the draft amendment to the Computer Act which may be contrary to the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights or the ICCPR ratified by Thailand, particularly Article 17 concerning the right to privacy and Article 19 concerning freedom of expression.

The issues which Amnesty Thailand are concerned about in the draft amendment to the Computer Act are Section 14(2) which contains unconcise definitions such as the words “false information” and “public service”, Sections 18, 19 and 20 concerning access, suspension or deletion of data of a suspect which is not as strict as other laws currently in force.

Interested people can read the document concerning Amnesty Thailand’s stance on the draft amendment to the Computer Act as of 17th August 2016 from the following table which can be downloaded here (in Thai version).

However, Amnesty found that Section 14(1) was amended to be more explicit to avoid the risk of human rights violation. Mrs. Piyanuch praised the commission for acknowledging the significance of protecting the computer security without violating civil liberties.